Winesburg, Ohio .... it's in Holmes County

Published: July 10, 2004 12:00AM

It was one of THOSE days.
First, I sadly discovered that the tasty lasagna rolls I had slaved over for our lunch had been BROILED for 30 minutes in the oven instead of BAKED, as they should have been done. They were edible, however crispy on the top and soggy on the bottom. Sadly, it makes one question one's state of mind when one is cooking, if you know what I mean.
Then I had a computer glitch that frustrated me to pieces. I wanted to print out 10 copies of just one page in a file. Instead I started to get 10 pages each of all seven pages in the file because I hadn't paid attention when I gave the order to the printer to just do the one page.
It wouldn't have been so bad had I known how to cancel the print order. After looking in several "help" areas, including the manual for the printer, I just gave up and turned the whole machine off. There's more than one way to skin a cat, as my grandmother used to say. (Now, that's a horrible mental picture, isn't it?)
Then I went to Rodhe's IGA for groceries, where I've shopped for more than a decade. When I presented the sweet young thing at the cash register my check for the groceries, she asked me for some I.D. When I asked why she wanted it, she said it was because I was not "local."
I'm afraid I got a bit hysterical at that point.
"What do you mean 'not local?'" I asked her. "Don't you know that Winesburg is in Holmes County? How much more local do I need to get? And besides, I've shopped here for 14 years and no one has ever asked me for my I.D.!"
The poor girl looked at me like I was demented and took my check.
Here is a geography lesson.
It is sad, but true, that many people do not realize that Winesburg is a part of Holmes County. I believe it is commonly referred to as "back at Winesburg," like we were hidden away in a corner somewhere, which we are, of course. And there lies the problem. Being bordered by Wayne, Stark and Tuscarawas counties, many people do not know just where Winesburg belongs.
Not only are we in Holmes County, but we are the REAL Winesburg, Not the depressing one referred to in the book by Sherwood Anderson titled "Winesburg, Ohio." You would be amazed at how many tourists come here who have read that book and are looking for certain landmarks, which, by the way, are all actually in Clyde. Little did Mr. Anderson know just how much confusion he would cause his readers!
Well, thanks, it feels good to get all that off of my chest.
Saying "well" reminds me of something granddaughter Sarah Katherine, who was born at our house nearly nine years ago now, told me. She has figured out that when her parents say "Well," that means it's time to go home. I've been observing them since she said that, and she's absolutely right.
Her baby brother, almost 5-year-old Gabriel, has a different remark. After about three or four times of us saying we had better go home, and then not making any motion to do so, he says quite matter-of-factly, "Well, go then!" He's so brutally frank. But, he comes by it honestly. My mother said when I was a little girl and got tired of guests, I would say, "When I shake my coat, it's time for you to go home!"